Sunday, July 20, 2008

Fathers Guest House

We spent the weekend at Cameron Highlands (about 1hr drive from Ipoh, up in the mountains) and stayed at the Fathers Guest House. This place was built by a French priest and has been used as the residence of Catholic priests in the area. Sometime during the past ten years, the last priest of that order retired and there are now no priests left in Cameron Highlands so the church leased the place out to an enterprising couple who have converted it into this guest house. Occasionally, visiting priests will still spend the night here but they usually just come up to say a single mass and then go back to their own parishes.

My photo is of the ex-chapel area, where our rooms were. There is a much nicer photo of the entire are here.

Just like Pangkor, this place also brings back memories from my childhood. We stayed in this house a couple of times when I was about 8 or 9 years old because my father is friends with the last priest, Fr Surmon. It was here that I first watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and was so scared I couldn't sleep for nights. It was that scene when the priest pulled the beating heart out of the man that kept replaying in my mind. It was also here that I first heard of Nostradamus, thanks to Fr Surmon. Something else, that kept me awake at night. In fact, the 'stories' that he told about Nostradamus gives me the shivers till this day and I avoid hearing anything about that topic.

So, last weekend we were at the beach and this week we were in the mountains. I wonder where we'll be next weekend?